Author and antiques expert Judith Miller, who co-founded Miller's Antiques Price Guide, wrote more than 100 books on antiques and interiors, and appeared regularly on TV and radio, has died, the Bookseller reported. She was 71.
Miller began collecting inexpensive antique plates in the late 1960s, "initially to brighten up the walls of her student digs while studying at Edinburgh University," the Bookseller wrote. Her publisher, Mitchell Beazley, noted that as she became increasingly intrigued with the field, she began to explore its history, and in the decades that followed went on to become one of the world's leading experts on not only antiques, but also interior design.
Following the publication in 1979 of the inaugural Miller's Antiques Price Guide, which she co-founded with her first husband, Martin Miller, she went on to write books published by Mitchell Beazley; Marshall Editions; Ryland, Peters & Small; and Dorling Kindersley in the U.K., and numerous other publishers internationally. Miller also joined the BBC's Antiques Roadshow as an expert in 2007; and co-hosted the BBC series The House Detectives, ITV's Antiques Trail, and Discovery's It's Your Bid. She contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines and lectured extensively.
Octopus publisher Alison Starling said: "Judith Miller's association with Mitchell Beazley goes back to the 1980s when the Miller's Antiques Price Guide was created from a bustling office in the picturesque Kentish village of Tenterden. I've been lucky enough to work with Judith on and off for the past 30 years and the news of her death is a huge shock. She had such energy and spirit--and always combined her impressively broad-ranging, in-depth knowledge of antiques with a life-long passion to make the world of collecting accessible and unintimidating to all. Judith will be much missed by all those readers and viewers who looked to her for expert and reassuringly friendly advice... and of course here at Octopus."